Overloaded, undermanned, meant to founder, we Euchred God Almighty's storm, bluffed the Seven men from all the world back to town again, Rollin' down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain: Seven men from out of Hell. Ain't the owners gay, 'Cause we took the "Bolivar" safe across the Bay? Rudyard Kipling SEA MOOD I shut my eyes, and I can see We sang in seven different tongues, And each tongue had its separate tears, While some would sigh to clear their lungs, Breaking the harmony for our ears. And when we'd stop, some Swede or Dane Then clear his throat, and tell again Or, looking at the sea with eyes That saw none of the swells and spray, THE ANCHOR He ran away from home to find What greater things the earth contains Than cities filling throats with grind, Slit through with narrow, crooked lanes. Then as the hours grew late, we'd take So great it seemed, and we would gaze Milton Raison THE ANCHOR By furious fire begotten, From patient iron I rose; Stern hammers were the midwives, Of fire that dares and iron that bides The work to me appointed: In coral, mud or sand, To strike, and grip my hardest- 143 Unseen thou striv'st, save by dark bulks The beds of many waters Have felt my earnest grip, The desperate bark, with strife fordone, Tho' last they slip my cable To save my ship-forlorn, I shall have striv'n and borne. Lord God of Effort, grant me such Having done and borne, to sleep, nor much William Laird "THE SEA IS A HARP" There is no music that man has heard Like the voice of the minstrel Sea, Whose major and minor chords are fraught With infinite mystery — OF MARINERS There is no passion that man has sung, Whose tide responds to the Moon's soft light There is no sorrow that man has known, For the Sea is a harp, and the winds of God And bear on the sweep of their mighty wings William Hamilton Hayne 145 OF MARINERS Sea folk have speech that is not quite their own, moan. Sea folk have speech that is not quite their own, For every seaman, every seaman's son Never a wind that comes from the East again, Their salty speech is not their own at all, Harold Vinal "SHIPPING NEWS” Here is the record of their splendid days: and Silver Maid. The narrow print is wide enough for these: The jagged spars thrust through, and flapping sails Flagging farewells to sky and wind and shore, David Morton HERVÉ RIEL (May 31, 1692) On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, Did the English fight the French, France! woe to And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue, |